2 wounded 'Abu Sayyaf' spotted near Tubigon, Bohol

From the Philippine News Agency (May 8): 2 wounded 'Abu Sayyaf' spotted near Tubigon, Bohol

Two alleged members of the kidnap-for-ransom group Abu Sayyaf were reportedly spotted in the vicinity of Tubigon, Bohol, according to Chief Supt. Noli G. Taliño, the regional director of the Philippine National Police Regional Office 7 (PRO-7) based in Cebu City.

In an interview Monday afternoon, Chief Supt. Taliño said they received information about the presence of the two suspected Abu Sayyaf members in the adjacent towns of Tubigon, where Saad Samad Kiram was arrested last May 4.

Chief Supt. Taliño said the PNP in Bohol, headed by its provincial director, Sr. Supt. Felipe Natividad, were validating the information.

Kiram, who was killed by his police escorts on May 5 after he allegedly tried to get a policeman's gun and attempted to escape while en route to a detention facility, had earlier disclosed that there were still two other companions in hiding in the vicinity of Tubigon, Taliño said.

Kiram further disclosed that his two companions were wounded following the firefight between the Abu Sayyaf members and the joint police and military operations, Taliño added.

At least ten Abu Sayyaf members were reported to have arrived in Inabanga, Bohol in early April to kidnap tourists in that island-province but police and military troops engaged them in clashes that initially left at least seven dead.

In subsequent operations, government troops arrested Police Supt. Ma. Cristina Nobleza and three others following information they were in Bohol in an attempt to rescue the remnants of the Abu Sayyaf there.

Nobleza, deputy chief of the Police Regional Office 11 Crime Laboratory, was arrested along with her driver and alleged boyfriend Reenor Lou Dungon and two other passengers when Army troops flagged down their vehicle at a checkpoint at the Clarin and Sagbayan border in Bohol.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/index.php/articles/985912